The narrowing gap is leaving car dealers worried.CHANDIGARH: The gap between the price of diesel and petrol in last six years has reduced from Rs 20 per litre (in January 2012) to Rs 8 per litre (January 28, 2018), causing tension to car dealers who claim the diesel car sales have dipped by 25% to 30% as compared to petrol engine cars in past three years

Data from petrol companies showed the difference between petrol and diesel price rose drastically from Rs 0.59 in 1977 to Rs 20 in 2012, the years when the demand for diesel engine driven cars peaked.

The narrowing gap is leaving car dealers worried.

Varinder Singh Saluja, owner of Saluja Ford, said, “We have been facing a downfall in the sale of diesel engine cars for past three years. Earlier, both diesel and petrol cars sold equally, but now the sale of diesel cars has dropped by 25% to 30%.”

Nitin Mahen, managing director, Auto Pace, said, “We saw a boom in sales till 2013, but since then the sale of diesel cars has gone down by 75% in past five years. The gap is further narrowing and we fear that this may lead to phasing out of diesel cars from the city.”

Dealers said another reason for the dip in sales is the price difference between petrol and diesel cars. “Earlier, a diesel car costing Rs 1 lakh more than its petrol variant failed to deter customer from choosing it as its running cost was lower. But now that the diesel price is coming at par with petrol, customer is more inclined to buy petrol cars,” said Mahen.

​​This comes as a surprise to the industry as Rakesh was recently elevated to the position of Directo Sales and Marketing which was the third promotion for him in six years of his tenure in the company.